Jesus Feeds the 5,000

Tonight, we talked about the passage in Matthew 14 where Jesus feeds the 5,000. We took a look at the story behind the story and brought up questions we had about the story. I wanted to put some of the thoughts shared tonight down in writing while they were still fresh in my mind. Here's a link to the passage.

Verse 13 starts with "When Jesus heard what had happened". The "what" that "had happened" was that John the Baptist had been beheaded by King Herod. So, when it says "[Jesus] withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place", the assumption is that he withdrew to mourn the loss of his cousin and forerunner.

Something I read said that it was customary to mourn for three days. I wonder how long he stayed out on the boat.

The second half of verse 13 says, "Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns." I think, our assumption was that the "hearing of this" was related to hearing that Jesus was out on a boat and not hear that John the Baptist had died.

So, Jesus was out on a boat, most likely mourning. I'm not sure where he is in the boat. At the end of chapter 13, he was in Nazareth, but there is no mention of where they are in chapter 14. And, people are following along on shore. We assumed that these people were not coming to give their condolences, but were seeking out Jesus because by this time he was well known in the region as a rabbi and miracle worker.

When Jesus comes ashore, after however long they were out on the boat, he gets right to work. "When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick." In the midst of his mourning, he has compassion. His mission is not compromised by his personal suffering. This will eventually come back up for him when he takes on the cross.


Well, this is taking much longer than I had thought. So, I am cutting this off for now and maybe I'll come back to it, but maybe not. It's not like anyone really reads this thing anyhow.

Announcements 9.5.08

Here are some announcements...there is a lot going on!

Sunday September 7th -
9:00 am Journey Group meeting - for folks interested in joining one or learning more about them. This is before the service. Email Traci if you have any questions.

9:15 am Prayer Gathering - A few of us are taking time to meet each Sunday before service in the room behind the balcony to meet with the Lord. We are gathering with the belief that prayer ca be devotional, worshipful, and it can be battle. We have the desire to see God leading us in all that we do and become as a church, as well as celebrate God's healing and triumph in the world beyond our church. Please join us anytime. Contact Julianne Shelton for more information.

Newcomer's Reception - this will take place after the service. If you are interested in representing our HG at this let me know.

1:00 pm Baby Shower - This Sunday Elizabeth and Julie are having a baby shower for Diana, Jason, Addison, and Aidan. It is a coed shower and all are welcome. They will be providing sandwiches and cake but you are suppose to bring a side dish/finger food. :)


Monday September 8th - Jubilee Dana Vaughn-Mgunda, Human Trafficking Training Coordinator for NC, will be leading "Human Trafficking 101: NC and Beyond," at Visio Dei. It will be from 6:30-9:30 pm. This 3 hour session will be geared toward helping participants understnad human trafficking on both a local and global level, and what they can do about it. Contact Traci for more information. It is free but you must register ahead of time.

Sunday September 14th - Leadership Development - this event has been CANCELLED for now.

Sunday September 14th - Sunday September 21st - WIHN Week
If you are in charge of an area please email the organizers of each Homegroup (listed below)
I guess we will just make announcements on Sunday mornings and then contact the organizers in each group to help us recruit volunteers. Send me the information when you have it and I will plug it in a spreadsheet.

Christy Gould gould_christy@yahoo.com - Edenton
Debby Meeks dmeeks@nc.rr.com - Raleigh North
Kelly Wick kellymichalwick@gmail.com - Oberlin
Kristen Wenger kristen.wenger@earthlink.net - Apex
Rebecca Schlieman rschlieman@gmail.com - Raleigh North

The Africa Hope Center Team is still meeting the 1st and 3rd Sundays of every month. Contact Sam Ed for more information about those meetings.

There were EVEN more things listed in the WEEKLY from Jason so make sure you read it!

If you have any prayer requests you would like to share with the group email Kim and she can send it out.

Enjoy the rest of your Friday and Hurricane Hanna!

Announcements 8.28.08

Hello All! I hope you are having a great week. Here are some announcements that I wanted to post.

This weekend the Ramseys/Gores are still moving, cleaning and painting. Their HG is helping them do some painting tonight but there are a lot of things to do so if you are still interested in helping them tonight I am sure they could use it. I think you could head over there at 7:00 and help out.

Also they are planning to move bedroom furniture on Saturday morning, clean those rooms, and then maybe paint. So if you are interested for either night and want more details you could contact Jeff or Jason.. or just email me and I will try to find out times and exactly what is being done.

Sunday August 31st - Last Sunday to bring shoes for WIHN and cans for the Food Drive.


Wednesday September 3rd - Social Night for our HG...let me know if you have any ideas or would like to organize something. email me.


Sunday September 7th -
9:00 am Journey Group meeting - for folks interested in joining one or learning more about them. This is before the service. Email Traci if you have any questions.

Newcomer's Reception - this will take place after the service. If you are interested in representing our HG at this let me know.

Sunday September 14th - Leadership Development - this event has been CANCELLED for now. It may be rescheduled and it may not...

Sunday September 14th - Sunday September 21st - WIHN Week
If you are in charge of an area please email the organizers of each Homegroup (listed below)
I guess we will just make announcements on Sunday mornings and then contact the organizers in each group to help us recruit volunteers. Send me the information when you have it and I will plug it in a spreadsheet.

Christy Gould gould_christy@yahoo.com - Edenton
Debby Meeks dmeeks@nc.rr.com - Raleigh North
Kelly Wick kellymichalwick@gmail.com - Oberlin
Kristen Wenger kristen.wenger@earthlink.net - Apex
Rebecca Schlieman rschlieman@gmail.com - Raleigh North

Also we encourage everyone to attend the services in September. We are doing a Values Series with Membership to follow. We are staying at one service for now.

Also as of this morning...the babies are still in the womb! So keep praying for the Gores. Also be praying for the Ramsey/Gore household as they are moving and flip-flopping floors.

Not sure if ya'll did prayer requests last night but if you have anything you would like to share with the group email Kim and she can send it out. Or if someone took notes send them to Kim :)

Have a great Labor Day Weekend! YAY an extra Day off!!!

Spiritual Gifts

Tonight we listened to a talk by Tim Keller on spiritual gifts. Afterwards, we had a good discussion about the talk and the subject of spiritual gifts. I wanted to open this up to continue that conversation.

What are you thoughts on spiritual gifts?

Were there any thoughts about the talk that you didn't get a chance to share tonight?

Do you feel like you have a good handle on what your spiritual gifts are?

Announcements 5.24.08

Monday May 26th - 2:30 pm Memorial Day Cookout at Jenny Profet's House
(1413 E Jones St, Raleigh 27610)

What to bring:

chairs/blankets

side dishes and desserts

beverages

outside games

She will have hot dogs but if you want to grill something else then bring that along. Please try to RSVP so she can be sure to get enough.

Wednesday May 28th - Home Group Meeting at Mandy/Daniel's place

Sunday June 1st - ONE SERVICE starting today - 10:00 am
Newcomer's Reception after the service. Let me know if you are interested in representing our homegroup and attending this for about 20 minutes or so...mrsdanielglennsmith@gmail.com

Wednesday June 4th - No HG meeting at our house this week :)

Thursday June 5th - Durham Bulls Game 7:00 pm... more details to come

Wednesday June 11th - Home Group Meeting at Mandy/Daniel's place

Weekend of June 13-15th (I think) - Guys in our HG going to the mountains..talk to one of them for more details...

Saturday June 14th - Race for the Cure...It is a 5K in Raleigh. We did it two years ago and it was fun besides the fact that I hurt my ankle. :) But let everyone know if you go sign up because maybe we could get a bunch of us to go walk or run

Wednesday June 18th - Home Group Meeting at Mandy/Daniel's place

Sunday June 22nd-29th - WIHN week

Wednesday June 25th - No HG Meeting at Mandy/Daniel's place this week... instead we will probably be making dinner together with the WIHN Families

Saturday July 12th - Drag Bingo - More details to come as it gets closer... Contact Bernie for more information... bernardnewton@gmail.com

Sunday July 13th - Next Leadership Development Meeting 4:00-6:00 pm...mark it on your calendars! :)

Announcements 5.16.08

Saturday May 16th and 17th - Amanda and Mike are moving TODAY - Here are the plans...

Friday: We figured it would make more since to start at 6pm, since most don't get off work before then. Between 6 and 7 you can stop over at the apartment (4804 Crockett Ct, Raleigh, NC, 27606) and pick up a car load, then head over to the house (1112 Lombar St, Raleigh, NC 27610). If you can't make it til after 7pm, call my cell #440-371-6353 and see where we are, or just go to the house. We will order some pizza in thanks for all your help.

Saturday: We pick up the u-haul truck at 8am, so we will probably start loading at 8:30am at the apartment. We need between 4-6 guys/ strong girls :), to help with the big stuff. We should be done by 11am. (We don't have that much stuff).

TOMORROW Saturday May 17th - Meg, Cara, Barry, and (someone else I forget) have graduated and they are having a Graduation "Kegger" Party. Everyone from HG is invited so if she left you off the evite.. she apologizes. She tried to add everyone's emails on there. Check out the evite for more information

Sunday May 18th - Africa Hope Center Meeting - 10:30 am...they are meeting the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month at the Visio Dei Building

It is John Enzor's birthday..wish him a Happy Birthday when you see him!

Wednesday May 21st - Homegroup Meeting at Mandy/Daniel's place


Memorial Day Weekend - someone should have a cookout or something :)

Wednesday May 28th - Homegroup Meeting at Mandy/Daniel's place

Sunday June 1st - Newcomer's Reception after the 2nd service. Let me know if you are interested in representing our homegroup and attending this for about 20 minutes or so...mrsdanielglennsmith@gmail.com

Wednesday June 4th - It is the 1st Wednesday of the month...we are looking for someone to organize dinner again..let me know if you are interested mrsdanielglennsmith@gmail.com

Weekend of June 13-15th (I think) - Guys in our HG going to the mountains..talk to one of them for more details...

Saturday June 14th - Race for the Cure...It is a 5K in Raleigh. We did it two years ago and it was fun besides the fact that I hurt my ankle. :) But let everyone know if you go sign up because maybe we could get a bunch of us to go walk or run

Sunday June 22nd-29th - WIHN week

Saturday July 12th - Drag Bingo - More details to come as it approaches... Contact Bernie for more information... bernardnewton@gmail.com

Sunday July 13th - Next Leadership Development Meeting 4:00-6:00 pm...mark it on your calendars! :)

Thank you for learning, loving, and giving within our community!

Smile...
Mandy

Recap 05/09/08

Wednesday night we held a discussion about how and where the home group is going. Before I get into that, there was some discussion about the AIDS Walk and Ride after which the following conclusions were made:

1. It might be nice for some folks with the gift of hospitality to man (and/or woman) a rest station for the bike ride. Rest stations are simply stations at which the riders rest and recoup with snacks and such from the previous leg of their journey. Scott said that it really made a difference to ride in on a station that was up and cheering the riders on as opposed to just lounging around in chairs. The riders really like to feel welcomed to the rest stops. This is one really easy way to be a positive part of the event next year.

2. Entertainment. I didn't notice as this was my first event of this nature but as I understand it, the walk lacked a certain "pizzazz". There should have been sword swallowers and flame jugglers dodging the little Shriner's mini cars as the walkers made their way around the city. Maybe next year we can spruce it up a little, huh? Anyone know how to twirl a baton?

3. Mo' people, mo' money. This year we raised just under $6,000.00 after setting a goal of $5,000.00. I think a total of 36 people participated. Not bad, but we can do better. Those numbers put us in third in the overall standings for total dollars raised.


Okay, on to the meeting.
This discussion was born out of the leadership development meeting that took place on Sunday the 6th. The purpose of the discussion was to take stock of where we are as a home group and discuss ways that we can make it a place to facilitate our growth as learners, lovers and givers. There was a lot of focus placed on the learner aspect with some loving and giving sprinkled in. Here goes. (I'll try to format this in a way that doesn't make this feel like trying to swallow a whale.)

1. Is home group a place that we should feel comfortable bringing newcomers?
It was mentioned that someone who visited with us didn't really feel like the group was "open", meaning that they didn't feel welcome. This is a problem. We should all be making an effort to welcome an embrace anyone who comes in the door. Let's try to be aware of that going forward.

2. How are the studies going?
We have been studying "children's stories" from the Old Testament through the lens of an adult and we got some feedback on how that's been going. Some say it has been enjoyable and lessons have been learned, but there were also folks who weren't a fan of this particular study. Some people tend to learn better from the inductive study we did before this one.

Also there was a desire to see more follow-up with the studies we've been doing. We need time to process what we've been learning. A lot of us are learning so many different things from different places that it's difficult sometimes to really let the lesson sink in and become part of your life.

3. Should we structure Wednesday's to allow us to rehash and pick apart what was taught on Sunday morning?
The rebuttals to this were (1) that this may put undue pressure on the teacher to come up with something since there are only 2 days between Sunday and Wednesday and (2) that this plan would be dependant on the teachers attendance during the Sunday gathering.

The solutions to this were (1) the teacher could take notes during the sermon and simply facilitate a discussion based on questions that either the teacher created or ones that may be embedded in the Sunday teaching and (2) this could be as simple as the teachers communicating if they will not be in attendance on a given Sunday and ensuring that someone was available for the task. After posing solution "1" the question arose of should our teaching be more lecture or more discussion? Thoughts on this included that we should tailor the teaching style to the character of the group and let "structure submit to spirit".

If we did this the Wednesday night meetings might look a little like this:

• Hang out
• Recap Sunday's teaching (for those who are new or weren't at the Sunday gathering)
• Discuss
• Challenge (optional)

It's worth mentioning also that if we do change to this new format that we will keep the same flexibility in our Wednesday meetings. Just because we would be discussing Sunday's message doesn't mean that we would need to teach every Wednesday. There will still be room for social and mission-based activities.

4. Should we let the teaching be driven by our experiences of loving and giving to those around us?
This is an alternative to question 2 in so far as it would fill our time with something different than Sunday's teaching. This would be valuable however for a few reasons.

a. We would be speaking directly to struggles and issues that people are having in their attempts to live out the lessons learned.
b. This would imply that we carve out time in our Wednesday night meeting to share our experiences with one another which would result in us having the opportunity to know each other on a deeper level.
c. This would provide the opportunity for the teacher to challenge us in a given area and the experiences of those challenges can be shared at the next meeting and so on.

5. Should we spend time learning what our giftings are?
It was mentioned that this type of thing may be a little to personal to handle in a group this size. It may be overwhelming for some folks to take that journey in this setting.


There was probably more that I didn't capture on paper but, seriously, did you even read this far? If you see anything I missed feel free to leave it in the comments.

There will be more discussion about the leadership development meeting as well as planning for the upcoming WIHN week this summer at our next meeting. Until then...

Recap 04-23-08

[This is pretty late. My apologies.]

Last Wednesday we talked about the story of Jonah and the Great Fish*. Here are some words we found that describe Jonah:

Prophet, Rebellious, Scared, Reluctant, Not Compassionate, Worshipper of God, Hebrew, Honest/Confused, Suicidal, Depressed, Refreshingly Normal, Angry, Hardheaded

Some commentary on a few of those:

Refreshingly Normal: He had to hit rock bottom before "remembering" God. How many of us need this type of experience to be reminded that we depend on Him?

Depressed: I thought it was interesting that someone noted that Jonah exhibited the signs of a depressed individual. He seemed suicidal and also probably slept a lot (see Jonah's reaction to the storm on the sea).

Angry: He seemed to harbor some deep resentment and hatred toward the people of Nineveh. We found out that these people were the Assyrians who did some pretty horrific things to the Israelites including throwing babies off of the temple and killing any other Jews they could find. So it's easy to understand where his anger comes from.

We also spoke about how God appears in the passage. Here are some words we found to describe Him:

Sovereign, Merciful

Sovereign: The verse that states, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy." came to mind. God can pretty much do whatever he wants even in spite of us or our motives.

Merciful: God is merciful even to those people who violently opposed Israel. Who are the people in our lives that we think do not deserve mercy?


Here are some lessons that we took away from the passage:

1. Don't be so concerned with yourself and your own plans that you miss God's miracles.
2. Think about the Ninevites next time you hear someone say, "Let's just nuke 'em. Let's just turn that place into a parking lot."
3. Do we think about the people we don't like (or even hate) and think that they are made in the image of God?
4. It's easy to call yourself a worshipper of God, but much harder to actually "follow" him.
5. What we want is not always what God wants.
6. Who are the Assyrians in our lives? Who are we bitter towards? Who would we like to see destroyed?
7. Sometimes we like to "sit on the hill and watch others be destroyed". Especially those who hurt us. What is God trying to teach you in the metaphor of the "gourd"?








It was noted that this may not have actually been a "whale" as commonly thought. That's not a commentary on anything. Just interesting.

Announcements 4.23.08

Hey everyone..here are some announcements from last night..it was great seeing everyone!

Saturday April 26th - Drag Bingo - It is this Saturday and we are going to play Bingo this time and not really volunteer. So you need $15 to play and Contact Bernie for more information... bernardnewton@gmail.com

Wednesday April 30th - Homegroup Meeting our house 7:00 pm

Saturday May 3rd - Aids Walk + Ride SIGN UP here
If you are going to be in town this weekend...go SIGN UP - seriously!!!

Sunday May 4th - Leadership Development - 4:00 - 6:00 pm at the Visio Dei Building If you are going our HG is suppose to bring desserts. So bring a yummy dessert to share!

Newcomer's Reception - after the 2nd service..let me know if you are interested in going and representing our HG

Africa Hope Center Meeting - 10:30 am...they are meeting the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month at the Visio Dei Building

Wednesday May 7th - Homegroup Meeting our house...we are suppose to do dinner this week so if anyone wants to organize this let me know...mrsdanielglennsmith@gmail.com

Saturday May 17th - Amanda and Mike are moving - They are planning to move that morning and will need some help. So put it on your calendar. They plan to start on Friday afternoon (16th) and evening and have to go pick up some new furniture that night so if you are free on Friday they could use your help as well. :)

Saturday May 17th - Meg is having a Graduation "Kegger" Party. Everyone from HG is invited so if she left you off.. she apologizes. She tried to add everyone's emails on there. Check out the evite for more information

Recap 4/16/08

Today we revisited the story of Daniel in the lion's den, wonderfully facilitated by our own Daniel, thanks Daniel!

Daniel pointed out that there were three main people in this story- King Darius, the satraps, and Daniel.

The basic (really basic) story goes like this: Daniel was a really intelligent, moral person that was part of the inner circle of governors or "satraps." King Darius even wanted to make him the leader of all the lead governors. This pretty much made the other satraps jealous, and they wanted to find a way to get rid of Daniel. So they watched him closely for any mistakes. But they could find nothing. Pretty amazing.

So they found a way to trick king Darius into getting rid of Daniel for them. They convinced the king to make an irrevocable law that anyone worshiping any god other than King Darius will be put to death. Daniel had such strong faith that he still worshiped God, without hiding it. They caught him and sent him into the lion's den (how did they get the lions in there anyway?).

King Darius seems like an easily manipulated kind of guy, and also prideful and arrogant. He was easily convinced that there should be a law to make people worship him. But then he seems to know something about the power of God also. He tells Daniel that he hopes his God will save him when he seals him into the den.

And God does. And then the king puts the conspiring satraps and all their wives and children in there instead. They were ripped to shreds! yikes!

The satraps seem like jealous, power-hungry men that wanted their own glory over what is right. But we see that in the end, their jealous schemes that were supposed to help them get ahead in the world ended up backfiring. It lead to the suffering and death of their loved ones as well. Same thing in our lives- jealousy often leads to our own suffering. Even if we scheme to get something from someone that we want, it often doesn't ease that burning feeling that jealousy creates in our hearts.

Looking at Daniel, we thought about what it means to be a Christian in the workplace. Daniel lived in religious excellence not for selfish gain, but because of his faith. He openly showed his loyalty to God, and stayed reliant on God even in his success. Would we openly go against the law of the workplace to show our faith in God? And would we remain loyal to God even after we gained success in the workplace?

We looked at Daniel's prayer life. He prayed three times every day. Maybe this is how he stayed focused on God despite his personal success. Today, we talk about the spiritual disciplines, prayer being one, and that sometimes they turn into just a habit that doesn't mean anything. I wonder if Daniel ever prayed just out of habit, or was he pure in his worship and love of God? There's a note in the story that God judged Daniel while he was in the den and found him pure. Maybe this shows his pureness of heart through prayer.

One last idea that we touched on was the idea that Daniel faced a dilemma- give in to satan and worship King Darius, or follow God and be put to the lions. Would we be willing to face the lions in order to defy satan? What are the lions in our life-- things that we fear so much that we give in to the easy temptations of satan... What things can we do to stay focused on God in those temptations?

Recap 04-09-2008

Last night I heard the name Naaman for the first time ever. He's a person* that was involved in a story documented in a book called 2 Kings. The story is found in chapter five.

Some observations about the people and places in the story:

People - Naaman, Naaman's wife and her maidservant, Elisha the prophet, God, King of Aram, Elisha's messenger.

Places - Abana, Pharpar, Jordan (all rivers), Temple of Rimmon, Aram, Damascus.


We listed some characteristics of the people involved:

Naaman - Great and highly regarded, commander of the army, valiant soldier, enemy of Israel, protagonist, rich, prideful/lazy, worshipper of Rimmon, desperate.

The maidservant - Heroin, caring, daring, abducted, served Naaman's wife.

King of Israel - Rips his clothes to shreds, thought the king of Aram might be picking a fight by asking him to do something impossible, which might say something about the way the king views God.

Elisha - Prophet, man of God, humble, not all about the benjamins.


Some of the themes discussed were:

Pride - Naaman assumed that Elisha would know who he was and heal him in such a way that was worthy of his stature. He also thought he could purchase his healing after he returned from the river.

Grace - God's grace in healing an enemy of Israel. The maidservant's grace in offering a way for Naaman (her captor) to be healed.

God's power - God's ability to use even the "smallest" of people. Also God's ability to heal a leper.

Listen to the little guy - Going along with the last theme, God uses the "little" people in the story to impact it the most (the maidservant, Naaman's servant...)

Don't be showy - Going along with another scripture that warns against doing your acts of devotion in public to be praised by man, this passage seems to suggest that God isn't really into healing as a party trick or a way to gain man's favor. He had Elisha tell Naaman to wash in the river while Naaman expected Elisha to put on a show in order to heal him.

Healing - Sort of obvious.

Misguided Expectations - Naaman had some preconceived notions about what it means to be healed by God. We should take this example and realize that maybe God won't always do things the way we expect him to.

Humility/Faith - It took both of these things for Naaman to wash in the Jordan. He had to put aside his expectations and have faith that Elisha heard from God. Elisha also showed humility by not trying to put on a show to heal Naaman as well as by refusing the money Naaman offered.

Forgiveness - The maidservant showed incredible forgiveness by offering Naaman a way to be healed.


We also tried to draw some paralells to Christ through this story:

King = Pharisees
- The king was supposed to be the one showing the people of Isreal the way of God, but instead the word of God was "spoken from the margins" as Corey put it.

Jordan River = Baptism
- The paralell is pretty easy to draw here.

Leprosy = Sin
- Leprosy is a disease that turns your body calloused and eats away at you (literally). It was mentioned in the childrens' bible that Naaman has leprosy of the heart, which is why God told him to go to the river instead of having Elisha heal him in some spectaular show of power. Naaman needed to humble himself.

Maidservant = Jesus
- The maidservant found it better to forgive her captor and offer him healing. This paralells to Jesus offering us salvation from our leprosy (sin) while were yet enemies of his.


What did we learn?

-One person really can make a difference.
- God's word comes from the margins. Who is marginalized in our culture?
- Be open to God working in different ways than you expected.
- Simple obedience.
- Have faith that God can do the impossible.



Wow. That was long, but it was a great dicussion.










* I say person and not character because it helps me to realize that this story actually happened. It's really easy to relegate stories like this to the part of my brain that's not the "fact" part and right next to the "fiction" part so that I can not really believe it, but still say I do because it's in the bible. Make sense? Good.

Announcements 4.14.08

Wednesday April 16th - Home Group Meeting 7:00 pm our house

Saturday April 19th - Stride and Ride sign up here... or contact Jessie for more information sweetpeaze@gmail.com

Sunday April 20th - Africa Hope Center Meeting - 10:30 am at the Visio Dei Building The meetings will be the 1st and 3rd Sundays of every month

Saturday April 26th - Drag Bingo - Contact Bernie for more information... bernardnewton@gmail.com

Saturday May 3rd - Aids Walk + Ride SIGN UP here

Sunday May 4th - Leadership Development - 4:00 - 6:00 pm at the Visio Dei Building

Saturday May 17th - Amanda and Mike are moving - They are planning to move that morning and will need some help. So put it on your calendar. They plan to start on Friday afternoon (16th) and evening and have to go pick up some new furniture that night so if you are free on Friday they could use your help as well. :)

Saturday May 17th - Meg is having a Graduation "Kegger" Party. Meg said everyone from HG is invited so if she left you off.. she apologizes. She tried to add everyone's emails on there. Check out the evite for more information

Ok if there is something else I missed...let me know or post a comment!

See ya'll on Wednesday!

Mandy

Recapitation, 4/2

Hi everyone!
This past Wednesday we met at Erin's house and had some fabulous spaghetti. Thanks so much Erin for your super hosting skills!

We decided to think again about what we learned from Joseph's visit this past weekend. We remembered his idea of think of the impossible and then do it. Amanda did just this this past week and thought of an amazing way to help the Africa Hope Center. You probably read about that in her email...And lets be sure to meet on Sunday to get that rolling!

Another idea that I know stuck with me was one of listening to God's leading during our service. Many times it is easy to think of ways we want to help, and then proceed to fight as hard as we can to make that happen. I know I do that sometimes in my service desires. Corey gave a good example, that sometimes when we do this we are feeding the demon possessed, and casting out demons from the hungry. In other words, we do things out of selfish ambition rather than to actually serve a need that God has spoken to us about. I think that reminds me of James somehow...

So a few things to remember: lets always be in prayer to listen humbly for God's leading in our lives of service. And let's not let the passion for serving through the Africa Hope Foundation die down. Those two things are an interesting combination, so let's pray about that too! Also, there was an idea of putting together a care package for Joseph and his family that Traci can deliver when she visits soon.

I hope everyone has had a great week. One more idea I've been thinking about that I get to throw in there just cause I worte the update =). A yoga instructor at the YMCA has a habit of encouraging people to try certian poses in "any amount." So there I am, thinking how imposible it is to try some new pose, I might as well just sit this one out. But then the instructor chimes in, "Move your arms up, in any amount." Then I feel freedom and relief that I don't have to be perfect, just give it a try, in any amount, and I am able to move one tiny inch closer to the goal. I've thought of this several times as we've been thinking how we can make any difference in the problems we face as a society and as individuals. So relax, just move towards the goal in any amount.

Announcements 4.4.08

Hello everyone! I heard you had a great discussion on how we can partner with the African Hope Center. So I am excited to hear more about it.

Here are the announcements that I know of. Of course I wasn't there on Wednesday so if there is more to add...please do!

Sunday April 6th - Visitor Reception - after the 11:00 am service for about 20 minutes. Julianne will be there to represent our Home Group.

Sunday April 6th - Africa Hope Center Meeting - 10:30 am at the Visio Dei Building. If you are interested in helping to brainstorm or create ways to partner with the Africa Hope Center plan on attending this meeting. Email Corey if you have any questions coreypaxton@gmail.com

Saturday May 3rd - Aids Walk + Ride SIGN UP here

Sunday May 4th - Leadership Development - 4:00 - 6:00 pm at the Visio Dei Building

Saturday May 16th - Amanda and Mike are moving - They are planning to move that morning and will need some help. So put it on your calendar. They plan to start on Friday afternoon and evening and have to go pick up some new furniture that night so if you are free on Friday they could use your help as well. :)

Ok there may be more going on...so blog about it or add it as a comment!

I hope everyone has had a good week and has an awesome weekend! I missed being at Home Group and look forward to next week. We are back at our house next week at 7:00 pm starting our new study on children's bible stories.

peace out

Announcements 3.25.08

Hello everyone.. here are some announcements of things that are coming up...

Wednesday March 26th (tomorrow) - Home Group - We are meeting at the Visio Dei Building with the Oberlin Group. We will be meeting at 7:00 pm at the building. If you would like to make a snack or bring something to share that would be great.

Saturday March 29th - Kickball Tournament - We are having hotdogs and hamburgers afterwards (I think). This is to support the African Hope Center. Talk to Corey for more details... coreypaxton@gmail.com

Saturday night Silver is also playing at the Lincoln Theater. I think they are playing at 10:00 pm. Email John Enzor for more information john.enzor@gmail.com

Sunday March 30th - Visio Dei Service - Joseph from the African Hope Center will be speaking at the Visio Dei Service. After the 11:00 service we will have a potluck. Bring something to share. Again talk to Corey for more details...coreypaxton@gmail.com

Wednesday April 2nd - Home Group - Same time but DIFFERENT place. We will be meeting at Erin MacDermut's new place. Address is 105 Adventure Trail Cary 27513. We will be having dinner together since it is the first Wednesday of the month. If you want to eat together come at 6:30. If you don't come about 7:00-7:30.
We NEED someone willing to organize the dinner part. So if you are interested email Mandy...mrsdanielglennsmith@gmail.com

Sunday April 6th - Visitor Reception - after the 11:00 am service for about 20 minutes.
Julianne is attending this for our Home Group. Thanks Julianne!!!

Saturday May 3rd - Aids Walk+Ride SIGN UP here

Sunday May 4th - Leadership Development - 4:00-6:00 pm.

Ok if I forgot something - I apologize. Post it yourself or add a comment with the event and information!

See ya'll tomorrow night!

Enjoy the Sunshine

James 5 - Recap

Tonight we wrapped up the book of James by discussing James 5.

Some of the words that stood out were as follows:

• Perseverance
• Eat your flesh like fire
• Patience
• Luxury and Self-indulgence
• Job
• Pray
• The Lord's coming

James points out that all of our material possesions will waste away. He also points out here that God pays attention to injustice. He tells his readers to be patient and that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. He charges us to pray for one another and confess to one another without judgment.

It occurred to someone in the group that we (Americans) may, on the global scale, be the "rich people" that James refers to in the first section. We spent a lot (okay, all) of our time talking about ways that we are part of a system that, wittingly or not, oppresses certain people in order to gain more wealth. We were forced to ask the question, "In what ways have I at least helped to "[condemn] and [murder] innocent men, who were not opposing [me]." The first section spoke about obtaining riches off of the backs of others. In James' day there was a direct equivilant to not paying the workmen who mowed the fields, but maybe our modern day example of this would be sweatshops or when any worker doesn't recieve a fair wage for their work.

It doesn't seem to be a sin to be wealthy. Though, it is a sin to gain wealth or power at the expense of others. We need to examine the way we treat others and the practices we are endorsing just by "doing the things that Americans do".

Simply put we need to live, speak and act in accordance with our faith. Once we realize where we are in the world we need to figure out where to go from there. This is where it gets interesting.

Takeaways:

• Educate yourself on ways that your life intersects in a negative way the life of other people. This could be anything from examining the things you buy to ensure they are eco-friendly or were made with "fair trade" to the way you treat someone at the workplace.
• Find 2 or 3 concrete ways to change the way you live in order to at least lessen your negative impact on the world. (and not just ecologically, though that is a good place to start)

Corey mentioned an author named Shane Claiborne who has written some books that will mess with your head, so be warned.

James 4
Hi to everyone who missed this week. Bernie facilitated a great discussion. I know for me it really related to things happening in my life and my thought process. I apologize that because of this I found myself listening more and writing less, and find my notes are a bit stream-of-consciousness. I'll try to summarize in a coherent manner! The overall theme seems to be focused on living a life focused purely on God's plan for us, or God's hope for us, as opposed to the world's ways for us. Here's an idea of what was discussed:

Observations:
A few words that stood out to us: fight, battle, quarrel, speak, judge, double minded, mist/fog, humble...This section focuses on things and customs of the "world." When opposed to the section just before this about peace and compassion, this section seems to show the world as one of quarrelling and bickering about selfish desires.

Interpretations:
We noted that when living according to the world, people seem to fight, quarrel, and do whatever it takes to get what they desire in the world. People fight for status, power, material goods...James calls us to give up this battle and ask God to show us His will instead, to humble ourselves and stop fighting for our selfish desires.

We wondered how to know when we are fighting for ourselves and when we are striving for God's will. A few thoughts were that if your actions are not for your personal gain, but for general good to glorify God or to put God first, that would be a pretty good signal you may be on the right track.

But even at times when we try to humble ourselves yet still struggle to know if we are in God's will, we can remember these thoughts from James: Our actions don't affect God's will in the end. We can strive to do what we think is right, but God's work has already been done in the world all around us. Our lives are just a passing moment, like a fading mist or melting fog. As we seek after him, our decisions should be put into this perspective: our decision is not that important to the will of God being lived out in this world. It is more important that we decide to be humble before God and not strive for self-glory, that we might catch a glimpse of what God's kingdom really looks like. A few members of the group noted how they have caught that glimpse, and feel able to love others just for the sake of loving or serving them, not for any personal gain.

The question came up of what it means to be a "friend of the world" and what that word "world" means for us. One main idea that was mentioned stood out for me- That living according to the world's ways or a worldly system of values means that it is OK to manipulate something good so that is becomes something for self-gain. This creates such a sad image to me...the innocent heart of a child manipulated for an adults' selfish pleasure...the beauty of loving another person manipulated for the other's gain...the beauty of creation and God's creatures misused for selfish power...we all have examples of being misused, and of misusing, the good gifts of God.

So what can we do? How can we live in the world without acting out worldly values? We can bring new thoughts and ideas about how to live in humility, ideas that many people might not hear about very often. We can "fan the flames" of Christ-like living in the lives of non-believers. Affirm any tendency you see in others to live a life as Christ would, and maybe let them know that as a Christian you share those same values. We can be humble in our decisions and not manipulate situations, people, or resources for our personal ambitions. As Bernie pointed out, our closest friends are the ones we spend time with, listen to, talk to, focus on...we should be friends of Christ, not friends of worldly ambitions.

Recapitation 2008.02.27

Last night we had a great discusison about James 3. Yep, the whole chapter.

Some observations:

James talks a lot about the tongue and compares it to a rudder on a ship, a bit in a horse's mouth and a fire consuming a forest. He also mentions that humility comes from wisdom. There are two kinds of wisdom; wisdom that comes from heaven which is "first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere", and earthly wisdom which is "unspiritual...[and] of the devil". In verse 10 James seems to be calling his readers, which are Messianic Jews, hipocrytes by saying "this should not be".

The size of the tongue is emphasized based on the metaphors when James writes, "Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts."


Some interpretations:

Based on the metaphors it is difficult to "tame" the tongue, but it was discussed and widely accepted that we can help control it by being wise and keeping our personal sin (such as bitter envy) in check. Much like a fire can be harnessed to keep you warm or can destroy an infinite number of things if left unchecked, the tongue is powerful in both good ways and bad. With that said, Bernie stated that the "sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me" saying is pretty much crap. Words are powerful and the tongue has the power of life and death.

Here he may also be warning teachers against teaching with the afore-mentioned "earthly wisdom". This ties back to an earlier verse in James (James 1:19) that says we ought to be "slow to speak". Think carefull about what you say because your words are very powerful.


Some application:

James refers directly to teachers here, but it was mentioned that if you are trying to guide someone in any way, including giving advise to that person, you should avoid being selfish and "harboring bitter envy". Maybe it's not about being right all the time. If your goal is to be right and not to edify the person you're talking to, then you're probably being selfish. In the same vain, talking junk about someone is not helpful either and does not come from heaven.

We were challenged to think about where in our lives we may be "starting fires" with our words. Much like a fire, once the words are said there's no taking it back. Once the fire has touched something it's burnt and there's no "un-burning" it. The only place to go from there is grace and this is what these verses lead us to toward the end.

Living in community with people is practically a guarantee that you will be hurt by something someone says. Recognizing that and applying grace in that situation will go a long way toward maintaining the type of community God has in mind for His church. This application of grace will likely look different to different people and in different situations, but grace is needed nonetheless.

Thanks to Bernie for facilitating the discussion. Grace and peace to you.*











* Yes, I borrowed that from Mars Hill. It's a powerful phrase though. You should listen to Rob Bell speak on grace and peace. It's the January 6th teaching.

Announcements 02.27.08

Saturday, March 1 - Silver, John Enzor's band, is playing at Ruckus Pizza at 10PM. Come out and watch John rock, literally.

Sunday, March 2 - The group of people from Visio Dei who are interested in serving Africa and her people is meeting again. The meeting will be Sunday at 8PM at Corey and Danielle's house (address to come). If you have a heart for Africa, please come out.

Wednesday, March 5 - It is the 1st Home Group of the Month so we will be eating dinner together again. Alicia is planning dinner that night and Julianne will send out an evite. There was talk of chili, but I'm not sure what the final decision was. Look for the evite in your inbox. Dinner is at 6:30 at Mandy and Daniel's house. If you plan to eat, plan to bring about $5.00 to chip in.

Saturday, March 8 - Drag Bingo. See Bernie's previous post for more details.

Sunday, March 9 - Visio Dei Leadership Development. The bi-monthly Visio Dei leadership development meeting is scheduled for next Sunday afternoon, 4PM - 6PM. At this meeting we will be performing our "expression" of what it means for us to be a missional community. We will also spend some time planning for the next two months of our home group. Everyone is welcome to come out. It is not limited to servant teams. It is open to anyone interested in growing as a leader in the Visio Dei community. Also don't forget there is a potluck afterwards.. so bring a dish to pass (your last name determines what you bring..see the weekly that Jason sends out or the previous post of announcements)

Saturday, March 29 Kickball. You know that group of people interested in serving Africa, that was mentioned above, they are organizing a kickball tournament for Saturday, March 29. Put it on your calendar and start thinking about who you could invite to play on your team. It would be great to get a few teams out of our home group. This is an excellent opportunity to invite some of your friends from work, school, etc. to a fun event for a good cause.

Saturday, May 3 2008 AIDS Walk+Ride. Speaking of fun events for a good cause, don't forget to sign up for the AIDS Walk. Not like you could since Shannon mentions it every five minutes.

Thanks Shannon for helping me update this. :)

Happy Friday!

Favoritism Forbidden

Check out my post about a recent 20/20 segment on my blog. I think you will agree that it is definitely a case of people showing favoritism.

If you have time, read the article I link there.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you think this relates to the passage we went over a few weeks ago, either here or on my blog.